looked like dumb luck to me. honestly, i thought it was smart tactics on rupps part. i thought he was feinting tiredness so that hagos would go around him and pick up the pacing duties. obviously, this did not happen as hagos just pulled away.

george oscar bluth

RE: Gebrhiwet just ran won of the most tactically savvy races I've ever seen2/2/2013 7:46PM - in reply to bangalangadanga

bangalangadanga wrote:looked like dumb luck to me. honestly, i thought it was smart tactics on rupps part. i thought he was feinting tiredness so that hagos would go around him and pick up the pacing duties. obviously, this did not happen as hagos just pulled away.

How could what happened in that race possibly be construed as "dumb luck"?

Eb55

RE: Gebrhiwet just ran won of the most tactically savvy races I've ever seen2/2/2013 7:52PM - in reply to bangalangadanga

Gebrehiwot is no slouch of a kicker... But u r right. Rupp did look great out kicking lagat at the us nationals. But lagat has lost a step. Rupp was not able to out kick mo farah last year ...so his kick is not first class.

I think Alberto uhum Salazar praises his kick too much and he may be relying too much on that... I really thought he would hang on too the surge.. But he got blown up... Wow ... Hagos is the real deal.

ryan foreman

RE: Gebrhiwet just ran won of the most tactically savvy races I've ever seen2/2/2013 8:24PM - in reply to george oscar bluth

How do you even know he has a better kick than Rupp? Does anyone know?

I think you are reading too much into it. Gebrhiwet just looked in great shape. He seemed incredibly comfortable just before he made his move. He looked like he just wanted the pace to go faster and he made it so. Rupp probably didn't know what to make of it. It was probably another East African who put in a ton of mileage and hard training for a race so he could make a name for himself. As often as not these guys fade. If anything Rupp respected him too much and may have been surprised he finished as close as he did. Clearly Rupp seems to have been locked into a race plan and was not going to alter his pace whatever move someone else made. The bottom line for Rupp is that he finished just outside the AR so it was a good performance on his part.

arawi

RE: Gebrhiwet just ran won of the most tactically savvy races I've ever seen2/2/2013 8:34PM - in reply to george oscar bluth

ryan foreman wrote:How do you even know he has a better kick than Rupp? Does anyone know?

I think you are reading too much into it. Gebrhiwet just looked in great shape. He seemed incredibly comfortable just before he made his move. He looked like he just wanted the pace to go faster and he made it so. Rupp probably didn't know what to make of it. It was probably another East African who put in a ton of mileage and hard training for a race so he could make a name for himself. As often as not these guys fade. If anything Rupp respected him too much and may have been surprised he finished as close as he did. Clearly Rupp seems to have been locked into a race plan and was not going to alter his pace whatever move someone else made. The bottom line for Rupp is that he finished just outside the AR so it was a good performance on his part.

He didn't just take over the lead and pick up the pace, though. He went around and ran what appeared to be a 28 high to gap Rupp so that Rupp wouldn't just sit on him, and opened up a large enough gap so that Rupp couldn't run him down. Regardless of who is the better kicker (I think Rupp has probably done more speed work at this point), Hagos ran a very, very smart race.

ryan foreman

RE: Gebrhiwet just ran won of the most tactically savvy races I've ever seen2/2/2013 10:13PM - in reply to george oscar bluth

It was a strong move but not exactly explosive either. Rupp could have reeled him in if he chose to spare the energy. But Rupp didn't want to spare it in order to maintain the pace he was at. It was a pick your poison situation for Rupp. The race was over at about the 2000M race when Rupp was clearly huffing and puffing while Gebrhiwet looked like Rudisha running 1:45 pace.

There is no evidence whatsoever that Gebrhiwet ran a smart race except of course for the fact that he won. He was simply the stronger runner much like Solinsky was better than Rupp in 2010. Nobody credited Solinsky with his smart savvy running in that Payton Jordan race.

george oscar bluth

RE: Gebrhiwet just ran won of the most tactically savvy races I've ever seen2/3/2013 12:02AM - in reply to ryan foreman

Well, like I said, it was a pick your poison situation for Rupp as to whether he went with Gebrhiwet. That is what he chose. There is no doubt that Rupp gave it his all as he was completely spent at the finish line. In contrast, Gebrhiwet was all smiles and went directly to his victory lap with hardly a pause for rest.

Besides the Solinsky analogy, what exactly are you disagreeing with me on?

george oscar bluth wrote:I don't know how to have a legitimate discussion with someone who seriously compared this race to the Rupp/Solinsky 10k at Payton Jordan. Agree to disagree I suppose.

Rupp said that he wanted to win more than he wanted the record, so to imply that he just ignored Gebrhiwet to focus on his own pace/race is ludicrous.

yyy

RE: Gebrhiwet just ran won of the most tactically savvy races I've ever seen2/3/2013 2:20AM - in reply to george oscar bluth

Pre is my favorite wrote:I'm not one for doping accusations usually, but someone needs to catch Gebrhiwet. 14:04 to 12:47 in one year? What an absolute joke.

Let's not misrepresent improvement. Letsrun made a lacking comment even though they included his 7:45 pr at the time. Obviously he was in 13:20ish shape at the very least the year he went 14:04 if he could go 7:45 in a championship style race. He was 6th in 2011 at the sr. Ethiopian championship. That's not something accomplished by a 14:04 guy. He improved a lot but not 77 secs.

Pre is my favorite

RE: Gebrhiwet just ran won of the most tactically savvy races I've ever seen2/3/2013 11:01AM - in reply to Mrr82